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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28516377">Up the Wolves</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/oscarwildechilde/pseuds/oscarwildechilde'>oscarwildechilde</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Welsh Remus Lupin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 04:42:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,137</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28516377</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/oscarwildechilde/pseuds/oscarwildechilde</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of scenes from the lives of the Lupin family 1965-1998 </p><p>Mostly focusing on Remus as a child, but extending to his later life.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hope Lupin/Lyall Lupin, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>59</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Up the Wolves</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>
  <i>“There’s bound to be a ghost at the back of your closet, no matter where you live. There’ll always be a few things, maybe several things that you’re gonna find really difficult to forgive.”</i>
</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>-February 10, 1965-</p><p>Hope fell into a shallow and uneasy sleep by Remus’ bedside, leaning over to rest her head near his little chest so she could hear his breathing. It was his first week home following the attack, and the few hours a day Remus was awake were spent screaming in terror at the memory of the monster. She was afraid to let him out of her sight for even a moment so she had grown haggard. Lyall was in and out of the house, looking more and more frantic and looked just as exhausted as she did. They took turns waiting beside him, barely speaking a word to one another unless it was about Remus, or Lyall’s attempts to find the man who did this to their son. He was out now, on some futile task or else frantically preparing for the upcoming full moon, as they had been warned to do. </p><p>Remus turned around with a whimper and Hope was immediately awake, watching him intently as he settled back into sleep. She let out a breath and pressed her palms into her eyes and rubbed them until she saw stars. When the doorbell rang, at first she thought she must be imagining things. She blinked hard and heard the knock again. Hope glanced down at Remus, frozen, a million scenarios running through her head. Was it somebody from Lyall’s work, come to take Remus away? No, she thought, they likely wouldn’t knock. She shook her head and stood as quiet as she could, slipping off into the hall and vaguely registering that it was now dark outside. She caught a glimpse of herself in the hallway mirror and tried to smooth out her unwashed hair, but gave up and opened the door. </p><p>Her father stood before her, several bags of groceries in his hands. The sight of David Howell standing there nearly brought her to tears again.</p><p>“Da, w-what are you doing here?” she stammered</p><p>“I came to see you! You tell me Remus is in hospital and then nothing for weeks!” he said, his Welsh accent thick as ever “What has happened?”</p><p>“I- Come in, come in.” Hope said, ushering him into the house and shutting the door behind him, clicking the heavy dead bolt into place. She lead him into the kitchen, which like the rest of the house was a disaster zone, neither of them had the strength or energy to clean much. David set down his bags and turned to her, putting his hands on either of her shoulders. He was a small man, but taller than Hope was, and his eyes were kind behind thick framed glasses. </p><p>“Hope, what has happened?” </p><p>“I-“ She tried to fight it but the tears began to fall down her face and her father brought her to his chest </p><p>“Oh goodness, my dear.” he said softly “You were never one for tears.” </p><p>“He-he was attacked. Remus was attacked, and he nearly died.” Hope sobbed, she paused, worrying over what she should share with him. David was the only one of her family who knew of Lyall’s magic, knew of his world. He was receptive to it, although he didn’t quite understand (which Hope could understand). This was compounded by the fact that David had never really liked Lyall much. </p><p>Hope heard a small crying noise from the next room and immediately turned around, drying her eyes on her sleeves and pushing her way into Remus’ bedroom. </p><p>“It’s okay, my love, I’m right here. Mummy’s right here. Nothing is going to hurt you.” She muttered, sitting on the edge of his bed. He weakly threw his arms around her neck and wept<br/>
He continued to sob. He hadn’t spoken a word since he woke up in hospital. </p><p>Remus’ eyes darted to the door and he began to scream and scramble away from Hope, pushing himself against the wall with his knees to his chest. Hope swung around and saw David standing in the doorway, the light from the hall thrusting him into shadows. He gaped at the state Remus was in- thin and sickly as if he were a ghost. There was still an angry red wound running from his chin and disappearing under the collar of his pajamas, and even the visible bruising was gruesome to behold. </p><p>“It’s okay, Remus! It’s only Grandpa, look? See?” Hope pleaded, trying to keep herself together “It’s alright.” </p><p>David took a step further into the door and removed his hat “Oh fy gnaws i…” David said softly, knelling down so he wasn’t so big “Someone has not been kind to you.” </p><p>Remus rubbed his eyes on his sleeve and nodded mutely </p><p>“Ah! Wait a moment, I think I have just the thing.” He stood slowly, so as not to frighten the boy and went to his bags, returning with two hands behind his back “Pick a hand.”</p><p>He hesitated, still clinging to Hope’s arm. She looked up at him and she nodded reassuringly. He pointed to David’s left hand and he pulled out a chocolate bar and held it out to Remus with a soft smile. The ghost of a smile seemed to flit over his face- the closest to anything Hope had seen in weeks. </p><p>“T-thank you…” Remus whispered, his voice broken and strained. Hope clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from crying. </p><p>“Of course.” David said “There is hardly a pain in the world that can’t be made a little bit better by some chocolate, I’ve found.” </p><p>Remus held the chocolate in his hands as if it were something precious and looked back up to his grandfather, his head cocked to the side curiously “What… What was in the other hand..?” he mumbled</p><p>“A curious mind.” He said with a wink “Never leave a question unanswered, cariad aur.” </p><p>From the other hand, he drew a book- a battered old copy of the Velveteen Rabbit. Remus eyed it curiously as the old man handed it to him “Your mum tells me you like stories. This was one of her favorites as a little girl, if I recall.” </p><p>He nodded softly and looked over the cover, lightly touching the faded illustration with the tips of his fingers. David noticed the bandages around his hands, as if he had been trying to hold them up against his attacker. </p><p>“Would you like grandad to read it to you?” Hope asked him softly. Remus nodded quickly and handed it back to him, curling up beside his mother. David sat in the chair Hope had dragged in from the kitchen and began to read. </p><p>“Here was once a velveteen rabbit, and in the beginning he was really splendid…” His low, melodic voice made Hope’s eyes droop despite herself, and before he was finished, the two of them had fallen asleep, curled together on Remus’ small bed. David quietly set the book down and left the room, shutting the door slowly to allow them to rest. </p><p>————-<br/>
The smell of something simmering on the stove brought Hope out of her sleep, disoriented but feeling like she had the first good bit of sleep she’d had in a long time. Gingerly, she slipped her arm out from around Remus and covered him in a blanket and padded out to the kitchen, pulling her cardigan around her. </p><p>“Da?” She called out sleepily. He stood at the stove, stirring something in a pot. The house had been cleaned, the laundry put into the washer and the mess on the table organized into neat piles. </p><p>“Sit, sit.” He said, practically pushing her into a chair and putting a bowl of soup and a hot cup of tea in front of her. Her stomach growled at the sight of it, as if it had forgotten to register hunger until that moment. David sat beside her and watched her expectedly as she ate “You didn’t have to do all of this.” </p><p>“Yes, I did.” David said “Why didn’t you call me sooner?” </p><p>“I-“ she set her spoon down “We- Lyall thought we needed to keep things between us for now.”</p><p>“Will you tell me what happened?” </p><p>“Theres… There’s just so much to say, you’re going to think I’m mad.” </p><p>“So it’s something to do with his… Lot?” David asked </p><p>She nodded “Lyall… He works for their government. With animals, creatures.” she explained “Bad creatures that like to hurt people. I don’t… I never really knew what he did. But he moved up in the department a few months ago, it was all very… It was a good thing. But he started working with werewolves-“</p><p>“Werewolves are real?” </p><p>Hope nodded, rubbing her eyes with her sleeve “One of them- Lyall got on the wrong side of him. And then he got loose, and…” </p><p>“Oh goodness.” David said, exhaling through his hands  “Does that mean..? I mean, I don’t know if it works like the stories, but…?”</p><p>“It does.” Hope nodded “He- He’s going to be one of them. He is one of them.” She put her head in her hands and shut her eyes </p><p>David put a hand on her back, trying to process the information he just received. The was a click at the door and Lyall walked in, looking haggard with deep lines on his face. He paused for a moment and blinked at his father in law</p><p>“David, hi.” Lyall said tentatively “What-what are you doing here?” </p><p>“I’m caring for my daughter and my grandson, what do you think I’m doing?” David said, trying to suppress the well of anger in the pit of his stomach </p><p>“Hope, I thought-“</p><p>“What do you think you were doing, telling her to keep this from her family?” He said, standing to face Lyall, who was at least a foot taller than he was.  </p><p>“Da, please-“ Hope began </p><p>“No.” he said, putting a finger to Lyall’s chest “I want to know what you did, I want to know why you exposed my family to this… This creature.” </p><p>“I-I-“ Lyall stammered, looking to Hope “It was an accident, nobody thought- Nobody listened to me. I told them he was dangerous.”</p><p>“But you could have done something!” he fumed “Look at that little boy in there!” </p><p>Lyall’s face twisted with guilt as he glanced towards the door “I know, David, I know I-“</p><p>“And then you try to keep him from us, make Hope keep it all a secret, and why?” </p><p>“You- you can’t understand, David. In my world, in our world… Nobody can know, alright? Nobody can ever find out, if they do…” Lyall struggled to find the words “He’ll be a pariah. As it is, he’ll never be able to go to school, never be able to… Have a normal life.”</p><p>“He will still have a normal life, Lyall.” Hope said </p><p>“No, he won’t.” he said definitely “This- this is going to change everything.” </p><p>David crossed his arms “Surely there’s something you can do, something anybody can do.”</p><p>“There is no cure.” Lyall said </p><p>“No cure, you people can do magic- what is it good for?” David threw his arms up. He turned to Hope “Dewch ymlaen, rydych chi'ch dau yn dod adref gyda mi.” he said to her in rapid Welsh, knowing Lyall couldn’t understand them. ‘Come on, you two can come home with me.’ he had told her</p><p>“Dad, ni allaf adael!” She said- I can’t just leave </p><p>Lyall pinched the bridge of his nose “Look, I know this is my fault. I know… I know none of this would have happened if it wasn’t for me, and I am going to hold that with me for the rest of my life. But now… Now we have to face what’s happening. What’s going to happen in a few days’ time. And then we need to leave this place.” </p><p>“Leave-?” Hope said, bewildered “We can’t move right now.”</p><p>“We have no choice.” Lyall said “If we don’t, what if the neighbors hear him? What if he gets away? There are too many people, too much around… If the Ministry finds out, they’ll take him away from us.”</p><p>“Then you’ll come with me.” David said definitively “I live in the country.”</p><p>“With all due respect, David, the fewer people we have around, the better.” </p><p>“You can’t tell me when I can and cannot see my family.” David snapped </p><p>“And you can’t tell me what I’m supposed to do with mine!” </p><p>There was a small shuffling noise and the three of them looked over to see Remus lingering in the doorway. </p><p>“Remus, love, what are you doing out of bed?” Lyall said softly </p><p>“Are… Are they going to take me away?” he whispered</p><p>“I-“ Lyall said, taking a breath and kneeling so he was at Remus’ eye level “I would never let that happen to you, okay? You’re staying right here.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>My apologies to the Welsh language, I am using google translate</p></blockquote></div></div>
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